The Queen's Protector
by freifraufischer
Summary: BroTP Snow Queen/Outlaw Queen. During the Missing Year, Roland goes missing in the castle and a search for him brings Robin and the Queen to the long forgotten chambers of her late husband. She has trouble dealing with the space and Snow comes to Robin later to explain why...


_A/N: This is something of a companion piece to another story of mine _The King Comes for Her in Her Sleep_ which is set in Storybrooke. This story is based on the following tumblr prompt: "I loved The king Comes for her in her sleep! What about something along those lines but in the missing year? Roland is missing, they're looking for him and the last place is Leopold's old room, Regina has a panic attack and Robin tries to help her."_

_It deals with Leopold and Regina again, but during the Missing Year Robin is not who Regina is likely to open up to... thus the title character is not Robin... but Snow._

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><p>The Wicked Witch's visit to Snow's announcement of her pregnancy had sent the castle into a high state of alert. Watches were posted and the Queen made an effort to boost the shield, but it was becoming more and more clear that she was no match for the witch. Which just made Regina more and more frustrated.<p>

But that night Robin and the Merry men came to the royals after a meeting alarmed. Roland had slipped away in the chaos and they couldn't find him anywhere. The castle was big, with many hiding spaces and any number of towers and dungeons he could actually get trapped.

Snow and Regina, the two people who knew the castle better than anyone, agreed to begin a search while Little John went to their rooms to find something of Roland's to use a locater spell on. Robin fell in line with the Queen's party. They were searching alternating floors of the castle. He'd gotten used to the parts he traveled, mostly the gardens, the great hall, the kitchens, and the wing that he and his men were houses, but Roland had taken to exploring the vast building. It hadn't bothered him until the Witch flew in as if the great fortress had a wide open door.

"There aren't any magical traps he could run into..."

He asked the Queen as he came up beside her as she flung open yet another door.

"I blocked off the tunnels and those are the only places with deliberate traps, but this is a castle with many secrets, not all of them mine, it's hundreds of years old."

They met with Snow on the landing of a set of stairs, and the royals exchanged a look, "Regina do you want me to take the next floor?"

Something passed between them that he couldn't understand. He'd been trying to understand these two women since he met them in the forest. Legendary adversaries that seemed more like sisters. Snow White fiercely protective of the woman who terrorized her. He'd gotten an idea of why that might be when he'd seen the Queen's grief, but she hadn't permitted him to see anything like that much humanity from him since.

"There is nothing in this castle I can't face."

She nearly hit him with the swish of her cloak as she passed him and Snow White sighed, she looked at Robin and seemed to debate saying something. "If something happens in there I want someone to find me right away."

"Of course m'lady." He answered somewhat puzzled.

What could happen to the queen in her own castle?

The hallway actually seemed brighter than the rest of the castle. White stone where there was black in other places. The queen marched into rooms and did her systematic search of the place with Robin and Friar Tuck calling out Roland's name. They found a trail of the wax paper that wrapped candies Granny had given Roland that morning and they knew they were close. But they got to a big door of what was clearly the main room on the floor and the Queen stopped. Her hand hovering at the door knob.

"Is something wrong?"

"Nothing that is of your concern." She dismissed imperiously and she flung open the door with a wave of her hand and there Roland was playing on a big bed with his little wooden knights that Little John had carved for him.

Robin ran to pick him up, the fear going from his heart. "You need to tell us where you are going little man. We couldn't find you and I was worried."

"There were a lot of people... I wanted to play with my soldiers... daddy... what's wrong with R'Gina?"

The question surprised him and he turned to see the queen practically backed into a corner as if she was afraid of something invisible in the room. "M'lady... what is this place."

She looked younger somehow. Terrified. He kept hold of Roland in case there was danger and told Tuck to go get the Princess.

"Get out." She finally said.

"What's wrong, Your Majesty."

"That you can't follow a simple instruction, thief. Get out."

He carried Roland out of the room, leaving her there as Snow White came running. She was relieved to see they'd found Roland, but her eyes grew big when she saw where he'd just exited.

"She's inside?"

"What's going on."

"It's not my place to say."

"What's this place, m'lady?"

"It's my father's bedroom."

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><p>The Queen nor the Princess were seen for the rest of the evening, and Robin decided not to push the matter. He already felt like he had seen more of the Evil Queen's inner demons than he had a right to, and he knew enough arranged marriages to make a few guesses as to what might have happened to her in that room. And why she would have closed off that part of the castle when she ruled there.<p>

Rather than going to breakfast he took his bow down to the guard's court yard for some practice. He'd shot a dozen arrows, all on target when he heard someone enter.

"And here I thought I'd be alone."

He turned to see the princess and bowed. "If you'd like I can leave..."

"No... I think it's perhaps time we had a conversation."

"About?"

"The Queen."

Snow White was one of the people who most adamantly insisted that her stepmother be paid the respects of her title. She might call her Regina in conversation, but he was not an intimate, despite the fact that he'd now seen two intimate moments.

"Is she alright."

"She's Regina."

He smiled a little despite himself.

"You are fond of her."

"She's family."

"If you don't mind..." He began, trying to come up with a way of phrasing his question that wasn't offensive...

"She's family. She's messy and complicated and capable of horrible evils and great heroics. And I just got her back from the depths of her own darkness. I'm never letting her go again."

"And that room?"

Snow inhaled. "I try not to think about her marriage to my father. It was my fault she was trapped in it."

He shook his head, "You could only have been a child..."

"I was... and it wasn't out of malice. Regina was ... a beautiful kind hearted woman trapped in this castle by everyone's good intentions. Including mine. I don't know what happened in that room." She added quickly. "I don't want to know. I love my father and his memory..."

She shook her head.

"The rumors say she killed him..."

"She had him killed." She nodded. "There is a lot of death between her and I. Blood on both our hands. Too much to assign blame and call her evil and me good."

"Why are you telling me this..."

"Because I want you to understand that when she says mean and cruel things to you... because she will in the next few days certainly... that's her way of protecting herself. Not from you, but from the world. The world has been very hard on the Queen."

"I think I understand," Robin nodded. "And I think I can take a tongue lashing or two if you think it will help her feel safe."

"I do." She smiled and pulled her bow out. "Now... Best of ten shots?"

He laughed and the subject dropped, but as he turned around and looked up he saw the queen watching them from a balcony and he couldn't help but wonder about what went on behind those dark eyes.

Perhaps someday she'd let him see.


End file.
